Vicksburg Police Department is taking steps to build tomorrow’s leaders through athletics and character building exercises.

Since June 1, the department has been hosting the Randy Naylor Summer Youth Program. It keeps kids off the streets during peak crime hours and gives them a well-structured environment to spend their childhood and teen energy before heading home for the night.

Basketball and other sports are an important aspect of the program commonly referred to as street ball, but it’s truly about so much more than sports.

Many of the students present at last week’s banquet for the Randy Naylor Summer Youth Program had probably never been to a formal dinner before. Some of them might never go to one again.

But there for that night during a three-hour stretch, the 200 kids involved in street ball over the summer were well dressed and on their best behavior.

“The reason we do the banquet is we want to give them a chance to display the ethical values they discuss throughout the program,” Vicksburg juvenile division investigator Tommy Curtis said.

It’s refreshing to see the police take time out of their schedules to work with young people. The effect, of course, is twofold.

Police officers are serving as role models and the children obviously look up to them as coaches and mentors. With such responsibility comes a lasting relationship that also benefits the police department by allowing juvenile officers who are in city schools on a regular basis to build rapport with students.

“They remember you from street ball. I think we gain more as a staff than the kids gain. We want to bridge the gap between the police department and kids,” Curtis said.

After so much negativity focused on police around the state and country in recent months, it’s wonderfully to see police doing exactly what they’re supposed to by helping build a safer community and a better tomorrow.